The True Gold Medal
The Olympics have begun. Over 10,000 athletes from around the world have descended upon London to compete in the 30th edition of these games. The United States and China look to compete to be the favorites in the competition to bring home the most medals.
That would seem logical. China has more people than any nation on earth. With over a billion people the pool from which the Chinese can draw to find athletes is very deep. The United States is the most affluent nation on earth. The resources and facilities for the training and development of athletes are second to none. Couple this factor with our passion for sports and one can easily see why the American teams are very formidable.
I recall the Olympic Games held in Atlanta in 1996. I was fortunate to attend a few events. Nannette and I sat in the upper reaches of the Georgia Dome and watched the American women’s gymnastics team clinch a gold medal. Gymnasts are rather diminutive athletes in the first place, but they appeared microscopic from the Georgia Dome’s nosebleed seats.
We rode to Lake Lanier and watched some sort of boat races sitting in front of a Canadian fellow who kept bellowing “Go Canada” in my ear and behind some Dutch people who did not happen to be wearing wooden shoes but kept chanting things in Dutch. They might have been saying “Go Canada” for all I know.
What I remember the most about those Olympics and every Olympics is the pride the athletes take in their performance and the emotion that they display. These athletes train years for these few brief moments and these moments often define a lifetime.
There are countless persons whose names are known to us only because of their moments in the Olympics. We would have never heard of Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz, Kerri Strug, Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, or Michael Phelps without their Olympic fame.
Others, such as Cassius Clay who later became Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Bruce Jenner who have achieved even greater fame beyond the Olympics, first made their mark in the Olympics.
Heck, if Bruce Jenner had not married Mrs. Kardashian we might have even been spared all the notoriety of the whole Kardashian clan. Had it not been for the Olympics we might never have had the George Foreman grill.
A number of years ago two researchers at Northwestern University did a survey of Olympic medal winners. They discovered that the gold medal winners were of course the happiest persons on the platform. However, their research showed that the bronze medal winners were generally happier than the silver medal winners.
The reason was that the silver medal winners, rather than being pleased with placing second, were angry they did not finish first. The bronze medal winners on the other hand realized they had beaten out the rest of the field for a medal so they were generally quite happy. In the end, it was all a matter of perspective.
This leads me to ask an important question of all of us and that is “What is our perspective about life?” The truth is that much of our happiness in life depends on how we view things.
For the most part each of us can deal with winning the gold medals. The challenge is handling winning the silver medal or the bronze medal.
How do we view the setbacks of life? Do we see them as opportunities or do we view them as defeats?
The overwhelming witness of scripture is that God calls us to see the setbacks of life as opportunities for growth and learning. It is true that even in our darkest moments that God offers opportunities.
After all what could have been more of a setback than the crucifixion of Jesus? Evil seemed to have defeated righteousness. Hate had conquered love. Darkness had conquered life. However, God saw an opportunity and through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead God offers salvation and eternal life to a hurting world.
That certainly wins a gold medal. It is all a matter of perspective.